Whispers In The Dark
by forgetyouinsiberia
Summary: He was just a ghost to her sight, but to her ears, to her mind, to her heart, he was everything. And she was willing to do anything to get him back. Inspired by The Invisible.
1. Wasting All These Tears

**A/N: **So from my crazy mind, I bring you this story. Really quickly I want to explain **how the plot line is AU**. In this version of events, Aria and Ezra never got back together after 215 because of Byron's threat of the police. Because of this, Ezra and Aria avoided one another, and their relationship dissolved because of it. Ella disagreed with Byron's actions and they still got divorced. That is all :)

Also, I've been informed that the plot I have for this is similar to Charlie St. Cloud, which I have never seen. I was going for something more similar to The Invisible.

**Disclaimer: **I own just about nothing. Not even the plot. Possibly a few original characters. That's all.

_Whispers In The Dark_

_Chapter 1_

_"I tried to find you at the bottom of a bottle  
__Laying down on the bathroom floor..."  
__-Wasting All These Tears, __**Cassadee Pope**_

* * *

Aria's ponytail bounced high as she walked through the halls of the college she had one taken an extension class in. It had been well over two years since she'd last stepped foot inside the building, and even then, it had only been to drop in an visit Byron over lunch before heading to the airport. In the six years since she'd left Rosewood for college at UCLA, Hollis College had seen quite a bit of remodeling, as well as expansion.

She had first been offered a position in the extension school in New Orleans, but had turned down the option when Ella had called her with news that she and Zack were returning to Rosewood . They had been traveling all over since Mike had gone off to college, both for business and pleasure. The Brew was now located in four cities across Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and they were looking to open a fifth in Maryland.

Even so, Aria's choice to return to Rosewood had nothing to do with the coffee. Ella and Zack had gotten married about two years after Aria had gone off to college, and though he had put it off for a while, the subject of Zack wanting his own kids eventually came up. Aria knew that Ella wasn't so sure about it, which had put the option off for almost a year before they had finally started looking at adoption and surrogacy. Two months prior to Aria's move back home, Ella had phoned to tell her that they were going to be adopting a baby girl from a woman in New York, due to be born in December. It had been that news that had sparked Aria to take the Russian Literature position opening up at Hollis in January, when the current teacher would be leaving to move with her husband. In the meantime, she was going to be teaching a single semester writing course. It was only one class, two days a week, but it was enough to get by on with what she had saved before moving back from Los Angeles, and as much as she didn't want it, she knew her parents would be right there to help if she desperately needed money.

"Aria!"

Aria quickened her pace as she walked down the hall towards Byron. As she reached him, she wrapped her arms tightly around him and inhaled a deep breath. There was a comfort in that breath - a mixed scent of sandalwood and citrus - that smelled like home.

"It seems as though it's been ages since you graduated," Byron said as he hugged her back equally as tightly.

"It has been," Aria murmured back as she exhaled heavily. "It's so good to be back though."

The two finally released each other, and Aria dropped back to her regular height - or at least back onto the three inch boots she was wearing - and looked around Byron's office. It was new, only having been finished about six months earlier when the new wing of the Arts and Literature department had been finished. The new office was freshly furnished, which was a relief, given that Aria knew for a fact that the couch that had been in Byron's last office had been there for as long as she could remember.

"Have you seen your mother yet?" Byron asked as he walked back over to his desk.

"I'm supposed to head over to the school in a bit for a late lunch," Aria replied as she popped the top off of her orange juice and took a slow sip. For late September, it was still pretty warm, and she had changed out of the sweats she'd been in that morning on the plane, into a pair of black dress pants and a yellow blouse for the meeting she'd had with the dean that had ended just minutes ago. "Have you talked to her at all this week?"

Byron nodded. Though the divorce had been messy at times, there was no bad blood between he or Ella, and they remained good friends. He even played golf from time to time with Zack.

"She called to ask if I knew anything about economics courses that...Sadie? Could take by correspondence." He explained.

Aria nodded. Sadie was the girl that was giving up her baby to Ella and Zack. They were agreed on an open adoption, and of what Aria knew about Sadie, she didn't have any living family. She was in college on a scholarship, and was looking to transfer to Hollis so that she could be nearby - at least that was the plan for now.

Aria's phone buzzed in her hand, and she lifted it up, having to turn her wrist to see the screen.

"That's mom. I'm coming back after, though to bring some of the stuff to the office," Aria told Byron. He nodded.

"Do you have plans for dinner?" He questioned.

Aria nodded. "Spencer and I are going over to her parents. I can do tomorrow though," she offered.

"Sounds good," Byron replied.

Aria nodded once more and then the two of them said goodbye before Aria turned and walked out of the room, heading towards the parking lot. As she did, she scrolled through her missed messages. There were a few from Spencer, asking her to grab a few things for dinner. She and Spencer were sharing a flat that her parents had 'gifted' to her - they had actually paid the first years' rent after Spencer graduated from college and tried to find a law firm that would take her on. She had been insistent on making a name for herself without her parents help, which kept her searching until she'd finally been brought on by a firm just outside of Philadelphia. She was making more than enough to cover all the rent and utilities, but Aria was determined to pay her own way.

As she walked, her attention was focused on her phone, typing back text messages to Spencer and her mother. She was just passing by a lecture hall when she stumbled into someone, knocking her sideways. She caught her footing and glanced up, ready to apologize for her lack of attention when her eyes met a set of very familiar blue orbs.

Ezra Fitz.

Aria gulped. "S-sorry," she said quickly before turning and continuing to walk down the hall, if not a bit faster.

She hadn't seen Ezra in well over three years, even though he still worked at Hollis. There wasn't any particular reason avoid him, other than the fact that their relationship had long since dissolved in every aspect.

The memory of their breakup was still clear as day, as if it had just happened a few days previous, even though it had been over seven years earlier. She remembered how it had been the day he told her that she couldn't call him anymore, and then they had seen each other at the Apple Wood Grill. There had been a number of almost-occurrences that happened in the weeks after that, but Byron's threat had been clear, and that had kept them apart. Some weeks later, she found out that he was seeing someone else, and she forced herself to move on. She kept her head down all through that summer and her senior year, focusing more than ever on her studies. It helped that they eventually caught A, who turned out to be Mona.

And then college had come along, and Aria had moved as far away from Ezra as she could without leaving the country. Granted, UCLA had a great english program too, but she had simply been desperate just to get away to a city that didn't have memories of him on every street corner. So she had moved into a flat with Hanna in the hills, and had let Hanna drag her out to as many frat parties as she wanted. She dated here and there, but never settled for more than a few weeks. Once things got too familiar, she found herself comparing guys to Ezra, and that was a wound too deep to deal with.

It wasn't as though Aria hated him, even in the midst of all the feelings she had about him and the entire situation. She still had copious amounts of respect for him as a teacher and a person. She knew that at the core of it all, he hadn't set out to hurt her. And as much as she knew her father was truly the one to blame in it all, she also knew that he was only trying to do what was best for her - even if it took her over two years to let herself admit that. But it didn't change the fact that he had still broken up with her.

She reached the exit of the building and shoved the door open, crossing through the courtyard to the parking lot. Aria walked over to her dark blue prius and unlocked the drivers side door before opening the door and getting in. She started the car and pulled her seatbelt on before backing out of the parking stall she was in, and heading towards the exit.

As she pulled towards the road, she punched the radio dial. The CD player kicked in and Aria glanced down at the read-out as music pumped through the speakers.

_"There's just one life to live,  
__And there's no time to waste, to waste  
__So let me give your heart a break..."_

_Aria ducked behind the island in Ezra's kitchen holding tightly to two water balloons. How she had managed to find herself in the position, she wasn't quite sure. Somewhere between telling him she still wanted to be with him, and them discussing how things would change with him working at Hollis, the mood had gotten lighter and then Ezra had started tickling her. The next thing she knew, she was arming herself with water balloons after her 'accidentally' spilled cold coffee on her. _

_"I swear Aria, it was an accident," Ezra said from the other side of the room. _

_Aria dared a quick glance around the counter. The TV was on Ezra's dresser, out of the way of harm, and the radio was on, but it was hanging up high on a shelf over his desk. Even so, Ezra wasn't in view. His voice was distant enough to not be coming from over head, so she moved to the other side of the island and looked around the other side. He was sitting with his back to his dresser peering back at her. _

_"Admit you did it on purpose," she ordered. _

_"I didn't!" He insisted. _

_Aria shook her head, glancing back up at his dresser. She hadn't seen his TV at all, so it had to be safe. _

_"Swear it?" She asked, changing tactics. _

_"Yes," Ezra replied. "And I'm unarmed now. Can I come over there?" _

_Aria exhaled audibly and then nodded. She stood up and watched Ezra, staying behind the counter. She waited until he was a few feet away and then lifted her arm suddenly and threw the first water balloon. It was full enough that it popped on contact and coated his shirt in water. A moment later, he swung an arm around and was squirting water at her from a water bottle. A stream of it ran down the length of her shirt. She grabbed another balloon from the bucket beside her and tossed it at him, only for him to move closer. He grabbed a large water gun from the other side of the island and suddenly began to spray her with large shots. _

_Aria's jaw dropped as he sprayed her heavily in the face, and she abandoned her balloons, dashing over to the sink. She turned on the tap and then grabbed the sprayer. _

_"Aria, no!" Ezra screamed suddenly. _

_"Too little, too late, buddy," she said before squeezing the trigger. She got his face and hair first and then began aiming lower as Ezra walked towards her and tried to take the sprayer from her hands. Their struggle for it earned Aria several squirts to the face, and by the time Ezra managed to distract her with a kiss, they were both generously wet from neck to torso. _

* * *

Ezra gulped down a generous amount of his water bottle as he leaned back in his desk. He had his students taking a test on a book they were supposed to have finished, but his attention was otherwise distracted.

Aria was back.

There were so many questions that became stirred up at that statement. Was she back in Rosewood for good? If so, why? Was she with someone? Was something wrong with Byron or Ella? Were her friends okay?

Ezra exhaled a frustrated sigh. Aria Montgomery was nothing short of a complex for him. How she managed to have such a hold on him seven years after their split was beyond his own understanding of reality.

That wasn't necessarily all true, he supposed. He knew that one of the reasons Aria's return mattered to him was because he still had feelings for her on some level. Much as he tried to ignore those feelings, he was never able to bury them completely. They were always just below the surface, waiting to come out and surprise him. It was that reason alone that he was turning 31 in two months, and still single.

It wasn't for lack of trying, though. Ezra had certainly tried over the previous seven years to find someone he could invest his life into. He had dated a number of girls, but it seemed that no matter how hard he tried to put his heart into something new, it just wasn't destined to happen. More often than not, the girls backed out with the excuse that they felt he wasn't as invested as they were. And he wasn't.

Ezra glanced up at the clock and then sat up in his desk chair, exhaling a heavy breath.

"Two more minutes," he announced in his most commanding teacher tone. He'd perfected it over the years, which helped, considering most of his students had the tendency to think that him being young meant that he was a pushover.

The previously quiet room seemed to pick up a bit of noise, which told him that they were all likely finished with their tests. That was great. The last thing he wanted was to be arguing with someone to get out of the classroom. He already had to attend a faculty mixer before he headed home.

The last few minutes of the class passed quickly, and Ezra waited until all of the tests he'd passed out had been returned to his desk before he packed them up and stuffed them into the binder he kept for that class. He stuffed the binder into his satchel and then lifted it over his shoulder before grabbing his bottle of water and heading out of the lecture hall, hitting the light as he exited it.

Two doors up, Byron Montgomery stepped out of another lecture hall. He nodded towards Ezra. Ezra reciprocated the acknowledgment, continuing to head up the hall.

His relationship with Byron was certainly a complicated one. The two had barely uttered more than two words to each other for well over a year after Ezra broke up Aria, simply just because he was still in love with her, and while Aria resembled Ella in almost every way, there was a tone about Aria's voice and personality that mirrored Byron clearly. That alone made talking to Byron akin to cutting himself with glass.

Eventually though, the two men had been forced to put aside their differences. Byron was made the head of the English department five years previous, and though Ezra first feared that the older man would fire him the first chance he got, he was surprised with Byron came to him with the offer to mend fences. Ezra was pretty sure that it had something to do with Aria taking off to UCLA, but given that Byron was officially his superior, he gave in to the offer and slowly but surely, the two men managed to somewhat repair what had once been a good friendship. Granted, they weren't best friends by any account, but they got along and could carry on a decent conversation.

As long as that conversation didn't get anywhere near Aria. Which was going to make Ezra's question very awkward.

"I bumped into Aria earlier," he commented as Byron picked up pace and started walking next to him.

Byron nodded. "She was hired to take over Morgan's job when she leaves, and she'll be teaching the creative writing course in the meantime."

"So she's back in Rosewood for good?" Ezra asked tentatively.

"For the forseeable future," Byron replied. "I'm sure you two will see quite a bit of each other now."

If there was a way that Ezra was supposed to take that comment and have it mean something, he wasn't sure what it was, and before he could ask, he'd reached his office. Resolving to find out more later, Ezra simply waved to Byron before stepping inside and pushing the door shut behind him. He dropped his satchel on the new coffee table that had come along with all the other new furniture after the new wing had been finished. He rounded the table and dropped down onto the couch. It was plush instead of leather, which made it quieter and slightly more comfortable, but it also made it more stainable.

He leaned back on the couch with his head on one arm, crossing his legs at the ankles where they rested on the other arm of the couch, and then lifted his arms and rested his forearms over his eyes as his elbows laid on his palms. He could feel a headache trying to form.

He was dangling on the edge of consciousness when the sound of a door rattling as it banged against the frame woke him. He lifted his arms up off his face and looked over to see Wes standing there in the doorway. Ezra exhaled a frustrated sigh. Visits from Wes never went well.

"What're you doing here, Wes?" Ezra asked.

"Can't a guy just drop in to see his brother?" Wes asked, clearly trying too hard to be nonchalant.

"No," Ezra exclaimed. "Not when said guy only turns up when he wants something."

Ezra could tell already that whatever Wes wanted wasn't going to be anything Ezra would actually **want **to help him with. There were dark circles under his eyes and his hair was mussed and clumped together in chunks from lack of a proper washing. It seemed more and more lately that every time Ezra saw Wes, his appearance just got worse.

"What do you want, Wes?" Ezra asked as he sat up on the couch.

Wes sighed. "I need money, man. I gotta pay this guy and I'm-"

"No," Ezra said. He didn't need to hear anything else. He was pretty clear on the fact that Wes was involved with a shady crowd and that he was involved in illegal activities, but the allotted five thousand dollars he handed over to his brother every month from his trust-fund was more than enough to survive on. "You have money."

"That's the thing man," Wes said, bouncing from foot to foot. "It's gone. I need more."

"No, Wes," Ezra told him firmly. "I give you enough money to pay all your bills, feed you, and pay for your transportation, plus spending money. If you're out then you need to look elsewhere."

"But Ezra-"

"But nothing," Ezra growled lowly at Wes. "The bank is closed. Now if that's all you came for, you can leave."

Wes glared at Ezra, staring at him for several long minute as if the look on his face would convince Ezra to give him what he wanted. When it didn't, he turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind himself. Ezra huffed and shook his head, counting to ten slowly before he exhaled once more. He checked his watch. The faculty mixer was due to start in a bit.

Ezra grabbed his things, making sure to grab everything from the day and stuffing it into his bag before headed out of his office and down to the teachers lounge. When he entered the room, there were a number of professors and their significant others standing around, talking.

Ezra walked over to the refreshments table and filled a tumbler with scotch before settling his things behind the table where others had placed their own bags.

As he rounded the table once more, he was pulled into a conversation by one of the art teachers who was arguing the about a book she'd recently read after Ezra had turned her on to it. She talked animatedly to another professor from the art department who seemed to disagree with what she thought of the book. Eventually, the discussion of the book faded into another discussion, and before Ezra knew it, he'd been talking with the same people for three quarters of an hour. It was just as he was dismissing himself to refill his drink that he spotted Aria walking in. She talked with Byron and several other other professors for a few moments before walking over to the refreshments table. Ezra moved from his spot and headed over in the direction of the refreshments table, only to be stopped when another professor approached him to ask a question about a student. One question led to three more, and before he knew it, another twenty-five minute had passed. When he finally managed to dismiss himself again, he was practically bouncing on his heels with anticipation. Aria was once again at the refreshments table, this time with several glasses. He closed the distance between them and waited as she poured scotch into a glass.

"I"ll be done with it in just a second," she commented before looking up to see whom she was speaking to. When she finally did look up, she gulped. She all but shoved the bottle at Ezra without saying a word.

"Aria-"

"I don't have time right now, Ezra," she said before quickly filling the last empty glass with wine and picking up the four she had brought with her. She walked away from him, and Ezra huffed once more.

He quickly filled his glass and then gulped down several large mouthfuls before returning the the glass to the table. He had half a mind to refill the glass and get stupid drunk based solely on how frustrated he was - and knew would only get worse - but his better judgment told him to put his glass down. He walked over where he'd placed his satchel and picked it up, slinging it over his shoulder. He was headed towards the door when the dean waved him over. Ezra gulped. He was standing next to Ezra and Byron.

Ezra walked over to them and the dean smiled at him.

"Ezra, I want you to meet the newest member of our team in the english department," the man said. "Although, Byron tells me you and Aria have already met."

Ezra glanced warily at Aria, unsure of how to respond to the statement.

"As her teacher," the dean continued when he seemed to notice Ezra's confusion. "Don't tell me you've forgotten the girl," he laughed.

Ezra cleared his throat and quickly forced a smile on his face, shaking his head. "Not at all. My mind was just elsewhere for a moment." He extended a hand to Aria - if she wanted to be cold, he could be cold too. "Glad to have you, Ms. Montgomery."

Aria seemed to stare him down for a long moment before she lifted a hand and grasped his. Though the handshake itself wasn't meant to mean anything, the stiffness in her grasp made it clear that she wasn't pleased of the show he was making.

"Byron is headed to a conference in Vermont on Wednesday," the dean said. "I trust you'll show Aria around if she needs?"

"Absolutely," Ezra said without looking up at the older man. He and Aria finally released each other's hands, and as cold as the grasp had been, he still felt as though he was losing something as soon as she let go of his hand.

His phone began to buzz in his bag, giving him a reason to escape the situation. "I'm sorry, I have to take that."

The dean nodded, and then his conversation shifted back to Byron. Ezra turned away from them and pulled his phone from his bag as he walked over to the door. He rolled his eyes when he saw that it was Wes trying to call him. He quickly rejected the call as he pushed the door open and walked outside before opening his contacts and scrolling down through them until he found Dianne's name. He tapped on it and lifted his phone to his ear, leaning against the wall for a few moments.

As he expected, the call went to voicemail. It was even season, which meant that if Dianne wasn't hosting some sort of event, she was attending a friends. It frustrated Ezra to no end because he often found himself unable to get in touch with her.

Granted, his relationship with his mother was far from perfect. She was a socialite and believed in proper etiquette and above all, she expected her children to be respectful at all times. Granted, Wes's continuing string of troubles had softened her quite a bit in the past few years, but it wasn't so much that gave Ezra any hope of waking up one day and seeing that she had become a parent he could actually count on 24/7. If he needed any proof in that, it was directly in front of his face. Dianne had signed all of Wes' accounts over to Ezra three years earlier when she decided she was tired of trying to get him to help himself, and had cut off all contact with her younger son, lest he get himself some help.

"Hi mom," Ezra said into the phone as he sighed. "I don't know if you've spoken to Wes recently, but you should. I don't know what he's gotten himself into now, but he's screwed something up, and I'm not going to give him anymore money. Call me back."

As he was ending the call a few moments later, the door opened behind him. He looked up to see Aria.

"I thought you left," she said, clearly caught off-guard.

"I was just heading out," he replied as he stuffed his phone into his pocket.

Aria simply shook her head and walked past him, heading down the corridor. Ezra rolled his eyes, but followed after her.

"It's clear we're going to have to learn to deal with eachother," he said.

"No we don't," Aria said, keeping her back to him. "You can do whatever you need to, and I'll do what I need to. You can leave me alone. You've done it before."

Her words were like a knife to his chest. "Aria, I didn't-"

She turned quickly on her heel, pointing a finger at him like he was a child doing wrong. "**Don't**. We're colleagues. Hell, we're not even that. We just work in the same place. I don't need your help at all, Ezra Fitz. I stopped needing anything from you a long time ago."

As he was left standing there feeling as though she'd punched him in the gut, Aria turned and began walking once more. Ezra didn't bother to start walking again until she was down the hall and around the corner, out of view. When he finally did start walking again, he beat-foot it to the parking lot and headed over to his car. As he reached it, three guys who looked like they'd walked straight of a gang movie were leaning against up it.

"Look, whatever it is you want, I don't have it," he told them.

The guy standing the middle, resting between the front and back passenger door, simply smiled at him as though he knew something.

"Look buddy, you can say whatever you want, but I know for a fact you've got the money that Wesley owes us."

Ezra exhaled heavily. "I don't have his money. I don't know what he told you-"

Before he could get the whole sentence out of his mouth, the guy talking to him punched him hard in the solar plexus. Ezra groaned, doubling over. As he did, an elbow came down hard on his neck, sending him down onto the cement. The guy kicked him over and then knelt down over him, grabbing his collar.

"Look here, **bud**," the man grumbled. "You're gonna tell me exactly what I want to know to get my hands on that money, or you're gonna pay for it, alright?"

"I don't have the money," Ezra replied, straining to speak from the pain of the punch to his stomach. "I don't even know what you're talking about."

The guy laughed at him, though there was nothing cheerful about it. A moment later, he punched Ezra three more times in the stomach before grasping a handful of his his hair and pulling his head off the ground before smashing it back against the pavement.

Ezra's ears were ringing as he tried to focus his vision. The guy was still talking over him, but he couldn't make out the words, he knew they wanted money, but he didn't even know how much. The gangsters words seemed to stream together into gibberish, and the longer Ezra went without an answer, the more times he hit him. The next thing he knew, numerous feet and fists were connecting with every part of his body.

And then everything was black.


	2. Safe And Sound

_Chapter 2_

_"Just close your eyes, the sun is going down  
__You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now  
__Come morning light, you and I'lll be safe and sound..."  
__-Safe & Sound, __**Taylor Swift**_

* * *

Waking up wasn't as simple as just opening his eyes, Ezra realized as he surfaced from unconscious. It was like waking up early in the morning after staying up far too late and having to fight your body just to open your eyes. It seemed as though he needed a set of pliers to pry his eyes open. As he laid there, he tried to make a survey of his injuries. He had a headache from hell, but otherwise, his aches felt rather minor in comparison.

When he finally forced his eyelids open, he winced. The sun wasn't directly on him, but the light was enough to make his skull throb. He inhaled a slow, deep breath and then looked around himself. He was still in the parking lot. The only car there was his own.

Ezra sat up slowly, and then when he'd managed that, he moved to his feet. He dug into his pockets in search of his keys, only to find that they weren't there. Then, he looked down around where he'd been laying her his bag. That was gone as well, and he didn't see his cell phone either. Exhaling a frustrated sigh, he walked back to the Arts & Literature entrance and walked inside. He passed by several offices and walked into his own, turning on the lights. The couch practically screamed for him to sit, but he needed to get in touch with someone first.

He walked over to his desk and sunk down into the chair before leaning forward and resting his head in his hand, wishing for the throbbing to go away.

Wes. He needed to call Wes. He needed to find out what had happened and why those guys had come after him. But he knew better than to think Wes would actually pick up. Wes had to know what had happened the night before, which meant he'd be avoiding any phone call that would lead to him getting yelled at.

Ezra let out a frustrated sigh. There was no use calling his mother who would likely have to make the four hour trip from New York, and then she'd only turn up long enough to yell at Wes and make sure Ezra wasn't dying before she'd take off back to New York.

For a brief second, he considered calling the dean or Byron, but quickly shook off the idea, figuring he'd be more of a nuisance than anything else. Frustrated, he pushed himself up out of the chair and walked across his office, back to the door. He turned the lights out and then walked out of the room. He turned and walked down the hall to the bathroom. As he reached out to open the door, someone else opened the door first and walked out, bumping his shoulder as he passed by.

"What the hell?" Ezra called after him. The guy didn't bother to turn around or even utter an apology, and instead just kept on walking.

Ezra shook his head and walked into the bathroom. He walked over to one of the mirrors and looked at himself.

He expected to be horrified. He expected to see trails of dried blood and blood-soaked hair. But he saw himself, instead. Just as he had looked the day before when he'd looked at himself in the mirror while getting ready for work. There were no indications that the night before had happened; he looked just as he always did. And that didn't make sense at all.

Ezra lifted a hand to his face and pressed his fingers against his cheek, wondering if maybe the mirror was deceiving him. Still, there was no difference. His face felt just as put together and clean as it looked in the mirror. He moved both his hands over the surface of his face, searching for any sign that something was off. Still, he felt nothing. Everything was just as it should be, **where **it should be.

He shook his head again and walked away from the mirror, heading out of the bathroom. Last night had to have happened. Didn't it? It didn't make sense that he could have dreamed it. He so clearly remembered the faces of the guy who had punched him first. He remembered them telling him they wanted their money.

As he walked, he tried to recall further back into the evening. He'd attended the faculty mixer. He'd talked with dean about someone new starting. Byron had been there. And...Aria. Wait, Aria.

Ezra stopped in his tracks and brought his hands up to the sides of his head, rubbing his fingers against them. He knew they had argued, but had something else happened? Had he gone home with her? Or to a bar? Was this all **really** just a dream?

It had to be, he decided. There was no way that he could've just laid on the pavement outside of his work without no one realizing. Someone would have had to have seen him at some point. So then, how was he supposed to wake up?

Considering the thought for a moment, he realized, he had to go to sleep in his dream. Something so mundane and normal had to wake him, right?

He began to pat his pockets, before remembering once again that his keys were gone. The logic of that confused him - shouldn't he just be able to wish for them or something? But he didn't stay caught on the thought. He needed to wake up so that he could remember what happened the night before.

Ezra began to walk, making his way through Hollis. Once he'd exited the building, he found his way to the street and began the four mile walk back to his house. It was a quiet walk, devoid of any cars racing by with loud music or even people walking by talking on their cell phones while juggling their briefcases and morning coffee. If that was supposed to be odd, Ezra wasn't aware of it. He was too caught in trying to recall the events of the night before.

It was a generous blank after the guys in the parking lot, but he was almost positive that something must've happened following the fight. Aria must've still been there, he had decided. She must've seen him and helped him. And then she took him home?

Frustrated, Ezra dismissed the thoughts and continued to walk. Each block blurred together, and before he knew it, he was walking into his apartment. While it was an upgrade from the studio apartment he'd had when he and Aria had dated, it wasn't much larger. Granted, he hadn't really needed an upgrade in size as much as he had needed a place not tainted by Aria. A place that didn't smell of her, or have her touches on every surface.

From the tea set she'd gotten for him their first and only Christmas together, to the paper bags that had rested on one of his bookcases for months. He never had the heart to get rid of them completely, but when he'd moved, they had gone into a box that sat in the closet inside his office. Somewhere that he never looked.

Ezra walked into the apartment building and passed through the small lobby, making his way into one of the elevators. He rode it up to the fifth floor and then stepped off and walked down the hall to his apartment. Once again aware of the fact that he didn't have his keys, he tried the handle. A generous wave of relief passed through him as the knob turned successfully to the right and released under his pressure. He stepped across the threshold, only to stop at the sound of voices.

Confused, Ezra walked further into the confines of his apartment to see Dianne sitting on his couch. She seemed to be rattled, talking with a shaky voice to a cop.

"I told you, I don't **know** the last time he spoke with his brother. All I know is that both of my sons called me last night. Ezra...he seemed worried about Wes. I tried to call him back and his phone didn't pick up. I drove here, and he's not been here. The one time I was able to reach my younger son this morning, he told me he hasn't been able to reach his brother since last night."

"Mom," Ezra called out as he watched Dianne continue to talk to the cop - who, for the record, looked less than worried. Dianne seemed to ignore his presence, so he walked over to the couch and sat own next to her.

"Mom," he said more firmly. His words continued to fall on deaf ears. "MOM!"

Panic began to fill Ezra as he stood from the spot on the couch. Something wasn't right. She wouldn't so blatantly ignore him like that; not even in a dream. Angry, he shoved the glass dish off the center of the table, sending it crashing into pieces on the other side of the table. As he did, it felt as though the world tilted - only for the briefest second - before righting itself once again. As it did, he could all but hear the whisper of words against his face.

_"I told you, you'd pay for lying to me."_

As the world readjusted around him, Ezra's eyes fell to the table, and more specifically - to the glass bowl resting in the centre of it, unbroken. The air in his lungs escaped him. That wasn't possible.

And yet somehow it was.

He walked away from the livingroom, passing by the doorway as he went. He stopped to stare at it. He'd never closed the door, and yet it wasn't open. Rage only seemed to fill him further as he walked down the small alcove that was too small to be a hallway, and stepped into his bedroom.

The bed was made, just as he'd left it the day before. There was nothing out of place; everything was in the same place he'd left it when he'd left. Throwing something might have been useless, but the anger growing inside him was a bigger driving force than whatever else was going on at the moment, and that reason alone drove him to pick up the first thing he could get his hands on - it just so happened to be a book on his nightstand - and throw it across the room. It hit the wall anticlimactically and then fell to the floor. But as he turned a moment later, it was resting back on the nightstand, just where he'd left it.

His hand trembled at his sides, and though he was still furious, Ezra knew he had to figure out what was going on. He exhaled a long breath and lifted his hands to his face, raking his fingers through his hair. He had to find Wes. How he would even begin to do that was beyond his own comprehension, but he had to start somewhere.

Exhaling another long breath, he tried to recall the last time he'd talked to Wes. The memory of the previous day came quickly, and he suddenly found himself wishing there was an easier way to get back to Hollis than walking. He rubbed his hands over his eyes, and as he did, it was as though all sound fell away. When he brought his hands away from his face though, he was standing back in his office at Hollis. His brow furrowed, confused. What the hell?

He didn't have long to ponder his confusion about how he'd gotten there though, because he soon heard very familiar voices coming from the hallway. Ezra walked over to the door and walked outside in time to see Wes turning down the end of the hallway after the sound of Aria's voice. Ezra rushed down the hallway and followed them into Aria's office.

"Look, if it's money you need, I don't have it, Wes," Aria grumbled.

"It's not that," Wes said. "Ezra-"

"I don't want to talk to Ezra," Aria said dismissively as she settled her things on the new, unused desk in her office. "I don't even want to talk **about **him."

"But he's gone," Wes argued. "And it's my fault!"

Aria seemed to stop all movement, and for the first time in years, Ezra saw something that looked like emotion on her face. Was she actually..._worried_ about him?

Aria was quiet for a few moments before speaking. "What do you mean he's _missing_?"

"I mean that I owed these guys money and he wouldn't give it to me," Wes explained. "I told them he had it. Now I can't find him, and I've looked everywhere that my mom hasn't."

"You sent drug dealers and gangsters after Ezra!?"

The sound of Aria's voice was shrill enough to hurt, and even as angry as he was at Wes, Ezra couldn't help but cringe at the way that Aria yelled at Wes. It wasn't that he didn't deserve it, because he did. It was the intensity in Aria's voice.

"I thought he'd give them the money!" Wes cried. "I didn't think...Well I didn't think they'd... K-kill him."

All colour seemed to drain from Aria's face, and Ezra couldn't help but gulp. Was it really possible that he was a ghost?

Aria shook her head a few moments later. "Ezra's not dead," she said insistently. "If he was, I'd feel it. But you need to find those guys and make them tell you where they took him!"

"They're never gonna tell me that," Wes said.

"Well you need to try!" Aria yelled, stomping her feet as she walked over to Wes, pointing a finger angrily at him. Wes walked backwards as she walked towards him, and Ezra stepped aside so as to not be knocked into...or was it through? He still wasn't sure.

"Aria, I'm tell you, they're never gonna tell me anything," Wes tried to reason.

"I don't care **WHAT **you think!" She growled. "This is your fault!"

"I can't-"

"God damn it, Wes!" Aria and Ezra both yelled at the same time. Aria seemed to freeze in the moment after, and Wes took the moment to make a run for it. Before Aria seemed to reacquaint herself with the present moment, he was gone.

* * *

Aria was feeling too many emotions to properly sort them into compartmentalized categories. She knew at the very top of her list was murderous ferocity, directed right at Wesley Fitz. She had never felt so much hatred at someone in her life.

Aria had met Wes on the first day of her senior year of highschool. He had transferred in for the year because Dianne Fitz - Ezra's mother - had decided that she needed to spend some quality time with both her kids; at least that's what the story had been when they'd first arrived in Rosewood. Over the first few months of the school year, Aria had quickly realized that Wes was a loose canon who needed to be watched carefully. Over the course of the school year, he got himself into a number of sticky situations, and Aria came to find out that while Dianne had paid Wes' way out of those situations in the past, she was making him learn the hard way this time around.

At least that's how it seemed. Aria found out a few years later that the weight of all of that had been dropped on Ezra's shoulders more and more as the year went on.

It certainly wasn't as though Aria looked to be friends with Wes. Not by a long shot. Hell, she had barely acknowledged him in the first few weeks of the school year. But with all the trouble he seemed to seek out, she eventually came into contact with him. And of course, there were the days when Ezra had to pick him up from school.

Still, Aria had come into contact enough times with Wes to know the trouble he caused, and she knew that he knew at least **something **about her relationship with Ezra because on the rare occasion she actually did give him the time of day, he had always mentioned Ezra in one context or another, as though he expected some kind of reaction.

She desperately wanted to hate Wes. Hell, she was trying to hate Ezra as much as humanly possible, if for no other reason than to keep her heart safe. Even so, she couldn't stop the wave of emotions threatening to crush her at the moment. Because Ezra was missing, and no one knew where he was.

Aria walked over to her desk and sat down, resting her head in her hands. She inhaled and exhaled in deep breaths, trying desperately to stay calm.

_"God, Aria..."_

She whipped her head up suddenly, looking around the room.

She was so sure she had imagined it the first time she'd heard it. She'd yelled at Wes, and she'd been so sure she'd heard Ezra saying exactly what she had said.

Aria shook her head at herself.

"Get it together, Aria," she muttered to herself. "You're just hearing things."

Her door opened a moment later, and Aria looked up, forcing a smile on her face as she watched Byron step through it.

"Hey," she said as she rested her chin in her hands. "What's up?"

"I was just coming to see if you were in yet. Are you planning on staying?" Byron asked.

Aria shook her head. "I just came to get the lesson planner to put some ideas together. Why?"

Byron inhaled a deep breath and glanced out into the hallway before pulling the door shut. "Ezra Fitz is missing. They're calling off classes until they've searched the entire campus."

Aria eyes widened. "How long is that gonna be?"

Byron shook his head. "I'm not sure. At least all of today."

Aria sighed and shook her head. "I'm just gonna go home then. Are we still on for dinner tonight?"

Byron nodded. Aria brushed a hand through her hair before reaching into the top left-hand desk drawer and pulling out the lesson planner. She stood up and walked over to the couch, picking up her bag. She placed the book inside of it.

"Aria?"

"Hmm?" She murmured as she looked back up at her father.

Byron stared at her quietly for a few moments. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" She responded.

"Look, I know it's been a few years-"

Aria cut him off. "It's been **seven **years, dad. Ezra Fitz doesn't mean anything to me."

"**But**, it was pretty clear that you two had something...real." Byron finished.

"It doesn't mean anything now," Aria told him as she walked across the room and pushed the door open. She hit the light switch, turning them off. "I stopped caring about him long before I ever thought of coming back to Rosewood."

"Even so-"

"Even so nothing, dad," Aria insisted. "Ezra means nothing to me, like I said. I hope he turns up, but other than that...I really don't care."

Byron stared at her for a moment longer before nodding. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead before patting her arm comfortingly, and then turned and walked out of the room, leaving her standing there. As she did, Aria felt a cold wave rush through her, knocking all the air out of her body. She lifted a hand to her chest and inhaled and exhaled in deep breaths for a few moments. She'd never felt anything like that before.

Exhaling a final deep breath, she stood up straight and walked out of her office, closing the door behind her. She walked through the halls until she reached the exit and then walked to the parking lot. As she reached her car, she couldn't help but glance back at where she'd seen Ezra's car parked just the day before. The only reason she knew it was his space was because of the marked cement bumper, but the fact that it was empty did nothing to calm the nerves she was refusing to admit to.

_"I can't remember what happened."_

A hysterical cry escaped Aria's throat, and she quickly unlocked her prius and then got inside before starting the car. She yanked her seatbelt on and then shifted the car into reverse, backing out of her parking spot. She drove out to the road, and forced herself to focus her attention on her driving and the movement of the cars around her; anything to keep herself distracted.

Because she had to be hearing things. Or she had to be losing her mind.

Because there wasn't a single possibility on the planet that could explain her hearing Ezra's voice.

* * *

Ezra watched as Aria paced back and forth in her apartment from his place on her floor. He wasn't entirely sure what it was she was so upset about. She hadn't said a word since leaving Hollis, and as angry as he was at what she'd said to Byron, he was also pretty sure she was the only one who could help him.

"I've gotta be losing my mind."

He whipped his head up, looking up at her as she began to speak. She was practically ripping her hair out of her head with how stressed she seemed to be.

"I've gotta be," she said again. "Because there's no **fucking **way I'm hearing the voice of my possibly dead ex-boyfriend. Right!?"

Ezra cringed at how loudly she screamed the last word. He was slightly confused by her staring up at the ceiling, but her current hysterical mood didn't really make him want to try and tell her where he was - if she could even hear him.

"Answer me, damn it," Aria growled. "If I'm not just nuts and this is real...Where are you?"

Ezra inhaled a deep breath, and even though he knew was basically just air - he was, after all, invisible - his whole body shook at the prospect of someone actually **hearing **him. He opened his mouth to speak, only to find that he was afraid of answering her. Because, what if she actually **couldn't **hear him? What if she really was just thinking she was hearing things?"

"Damn it, Ezra!" Aria's knees gave out from under her and she fell to the floor, hands grasping large chunks of hair on her head as she knelt on the floor, crying. Ezra wasn't sure if he should move to try and and comfort her. It wasn't as though she'd be able to feel it anyway.

But even so, he could see the grief on her face and the pain in her eyes as she sobbed loudly. Her right hand drifted down out of her hair before coming to rest on her chest, curled into a fist around the necklace she was wearing.

"You have to be alive out there somewhere," she whimpered quietly between sobs. "Please still be alive."

"I think I am," Ezra said quietly from his spot across from her.

Aria's head whipped up suddenly. "S-say it again?"

"I think I'm still alive," Ezra replied in the same soft tone.

Aria's hands moved to her mouth as a fresh wave of tears hit her and she began to cry. "H-how do I know you're really here? That it's really you?"

Ezra gulped as he watched her, wanting more than anything to go to her and help her. He'd do anything to make her stop crying.

"I don't know," he responded. He was quiet for a few moments as he wracked his memories for ideas. Some of them felt so muddled and distant - especially anything that wasn't recent - that it was hard to recall anything about their relationship at all.

"If...if you're here..." Aria murmured. "Then um...what colour is are the kitchen cabinets?" She asked.

Ezra glanced up at them. "Charcoal," he replied. "I can't remember a lot...but we went to a museum once."

Aria sobbed once more and nodded quickly. The only people who knew that she'd ever gone on a date with Ezra to the museum were Spencer, Hanna, Emily, and of course Mona.

She forced herself to pull it together at least somewhat, though her hands shook as she tried to slow her breathing. "If I can hear you, a-and you think you're still alive...does that mean you know where you are?"

"No." Ezra replied quietly. He stared down at the floor as he spoke. "The last thing I remember is being in the parking lot last night. I wouldn't give Wes the money he wanted, and these guys..." He shook his head, furrowing his brow. "One of them punched me. Everything is like...flashes and snippets after that."

"Can...can you feel anything?" Aria asked nervously.

"I had a headache earlier," Ezra said. "Now, I just feel numb."

Aria nodded again. She sat in the place she was in for a few moments longer before pushing herself to her feet and walking over to the counter. Though he wasn't visible to her, Ezra moved to his feet and followed after her.

"What're you doing?" He asked.

Aria dug her phone out of her bag and scrolled through the numbers on it. "Calling Wes." She shivered, feeling a coldness to her left. "Are you next to me?"

"Yes," Ezra replied. He placed his hand over her wrist, causing Aria to tremble. "And don't bother. If there's one thing Wes was right about, it's that those guys won't tell him where I am. He'll sooner get killed trying to get information from them then actually know where I am."

Aria pressed her lips together, inhaling and exhaling in deep breaths again, trying to keep herself calm. "But if Wes can't find out where you are, and those guys are never going to give it up...How is anyone going to find you? How is anyone going to save you?"


	3. Open Water

_Chapter 3_

_"Sing me something that'll bring me to my knees  
__That'll put my mind at ease; please tell me anything  
__We can build this like a dream  
__Let's make believe, just you and me..."  
__-Open Water (feat. Lights)__**, Blessthefall**_

* * *

"Close your eyes," Ezra said as he stood across from Aria in her kitchen.

"Why?" She asked. "That just feels pointless."

Ezra huffed, shaking his head. In the six hours that had passed since that morning, it felt as though no effort at all had been made. It was pretty clear that no one had found him yet, considering he didn't feel any different. And although Aria had received a number of phone calls asking if she was okay, no one ever called with any information.

"Because, maybe if you can hear me without seeing anything at all, we can go about this in a different way," Ezra replied.

Aria rolled her eyes, but sat up straighter on the stool she was seated on. "Alright. Tell me what to do."

"Turn to your left," Ezra said as he walked around the counter. Once he was standing in front of her, he stopped. "Now close your eyes. Do you remember what I was wearing yesterday?"

"Um...black button-up and the blue vest that goes with the matching pants, right?" Aria asked.

"Right," Ezra replied, glancing down at the clothes he was in. They were the same ones he'd been in since waking up. "Can you see me?"

Aria nodded.

"Okay," Ezra said tentatively. He chewed his bottom lip for a moment, trying to figure out what to do next. After a moment, he spoke once more. "Lift your hands up in front of you."

Aria's brow furrowed, but her eyes stayed shut. She did as he requested anyway. Ezra lifted his hands to hers and closed his eyes as he wrapped his hands around her own. A sudden shock of electricity shot through the both of them, and though both their eyes were closed, they could see one another.

In her mind, Aria imagined she and Ezra standing in the very same spot, holding hands. She smiled as she stared at him. "I can see you. And feel you."

Ezra nodded, smiling as he stared back at her. "And I can see you."

Aria removed one of her hands from Ezra's and moved it up his arm, over his shoulder and past the side of his neck to his face. Her bottom lip trembled as she stared at him. "It's been so long since I've really looked at you." Her thumb moved over his lips, and she could feel her chest shaking as she tried to keep from crying again. "Ezra, I'm sorry about yesterday."

He shook his head, lifting his hand up to cup hers, pressing a kiss into her thumb. "You couldn't have known this would happen. Any of it..."

Aria inhaled a deep breath, shaking her head. "I want to hate Wes so much. I can't even begin to understand..."

"He needs help," Ezra responded with a bit of an edge. He was so incredibly pissed at Wes for putting him in this position. As much as being able to talk to Aria was great, it didn't change the fact that he was lying somewhere probably dying.

"Can I ask you," Aria asked, cutting into his thoughts. "Since I can see you...do you know where you are?"

Ezra shook his head, looking back up at her. "I just see us in your kitchen."

"Oh," Aria replied sadly. Her hands dropped, and with the same shockwave they'd felt a few minutes later, it was like severing a connection. Aria saw nothing but the back of her eyelids for the briefest moment before she opened her eyes, and the there was nothing at all. "Are you still here?" She asked in a panicked voice.

Ezra nodded, only to quickly realize that he was invisible to her once more. "Yeah."

Aria exhaled a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

"It's fine," Ezra said. He closed his eyes and sat down on the floor, leaning back against the counter. He had hoped that they'd be able to forge a connection, but he hadn't expected it to take so much energy out of him. After a few long breaths, he opened his eyes and looked back up at Aria. "What made you stop?"

Aria chewed her bottom lip, shaking her head as she brushed a thick chunk of hair out of her face. "I was just hoping maybe you'd see where you are physically. Do you even remember where you were last?"

Ezra closed his eyes again, trying desperately to recall anything. He huffed. "The last thing I remember is being in the parking lot on my side just trying to take in a deep breath. There were...flashes. Moments of consciousness. But that's it."

Aria shook her head again. She moved off the stool she was still sitting on and walked over to the fridge, yanking it open. She pulled out a bottle of water and twisted off the cap before taking a large drink. A moment later, the door opened across the room and Spencer walked in.

"Hey," Aria said as she walked back over to the counter. "What're you- Hardy?!"

The blonde-haired male closed the door as he walked in behind Spencer and he waved at her. "Hey, Aria."

"This is the guy you've been dating?" Aria asked Spencer. Spencer nodded.

"I wasn't really sure how to tell you," Spencer admitted.

Aria couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her. She knew she was on the edge of hysteria, and it was all she could do just to keep herself semi-grounded. "Wow. What're you doing home so early?"

"We wrapped a case early," Hardy said as he dropped a messenger bag on the counter and walked over to the fridge. "Which means plenty of paperwork tomorrow, and a good night's sleep tonight."

"We're gonna get dinner," Spencer said, leaning against the counter across from Aria. "Wait, why are **you** at home?"

"Someone went missing on campus," Aria said before taking another sip of her water.

Though silent, Ezra was watching Hardy's every move. He could see the look on his best friend's face change suddenly, and it didn't surprise him. Hardy knew about the mess with Wes. He'd told Ezra more than once to cut off his younger brother before it got him killed.

"Don't tell him anything," Ezra said quickly. "He knows too much. Just tell them it was a student."

"Wait, who?" Spencer asked. "Is your dad okay?"

Aria nodded. "It was a student. They called off classes for the day though so that they could search the campus."

Hardy walked over to the counter next to Aria and leaned against it. Ezra's eyes grew wide as he opened his eyes only to come face to face with the lower half of Hardy's body. He cleared his throat and scrambled to move out of the way without touching Hardy.

Although Aria couldn't see Ezra, it was all she could do to not laugh from the sounds she heard him making.

"That's just not right," he muttered, standing up and leaning against the end of the counter. Aria quickly took a gulp of water to keep from giving anything away, let alone giving Spencer and Hardy the impression that she was nuts.

"So what are you guys going to do with all your time off?" Aria asked.

"Well first, take a nap," Hardy replied. "And then we were talking about ordering in."

"Are you gonna be here?" Spencer asked.

"You have dinner with your father," Ezra told her.

"I don't know," Aria replied, if not somewhat nervously. She wasn't quite sure she could do dinner with her father **with **Ezra, and there was no way she was going **without **him. She couldn't risk it. "Maybe. If not, I'll leave a note."

Spencer and Hardy nodded. Hardy reached his arm out to Spencer a moment later and she took it before walking around the counter. He pulled her into him and rested his chin on her shoulder wearily for a moment.

"Okay, well we're gonna go sleep now," Spencer said after a long moment. "Text me if you need food and you won't be back before like...six?"

Aria nodded, and then Hardy and Spencer walked down the hall to Spencer's room and closed the door. Aria exhaled a heavy sigh of relief as the door slipped shut.

"Where are you?" She growled.

"I'm right here," Ezra said from where he was leaning against the wall.

Down the hall, Spencer's bedroom door opened and she popped her head out. Aria pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and walked into the view of the hallway, glancing up nonchalantly. She turned and pointed conveniently to her cell phone.

"You're an idiot," she continued. A few moments later, Spencer closed her bedroom door and. Aria sighed, walking out of view from the hallway once more as she returned her cell phone to her pocket. "I can't go to that dinner without you, and there's no way I'm going **with **you. My father will think I'm nuts!"

Ezra chuckled. He walked over to her and brushed his knuckles over her cheek. Aria trembled from the cool feeling against her face.

"Sorry," he murmured. He backed up a few steps and leaned against the sink. "Look, if you don't go, he's going to have questions. Questions that you can't really answer without him..."

"Thinking I'm mentally unstable?" Aria finished for him. "Yeah, and if I show up there with you, he's going to think I'm just as crazy."

"I promise I'll be good," Ezra offered.

Aria chuckled, shaking her head. "I wish it was that simple. He's gonna say things tonight, and want to talk about everything. If that doesn't make you nervous, it should."

Ezra exhaled a long breath, staring at Aria as she glanced around the room as if, if she looked hard enough, she'd be able to make out his form and find him.

"If you go, I'll figure out where they left me," Ezra told her.

"Do you know?" Aria asked, whipping her head in the general direction of his voice. "Do you remember now?"

"I have...flashes," Ezra told her. "Nothing concrete, but its a place to start."

Aria sighed. "Alright, fine. But afterwards, we're finding out where they dumped out off, even if it means finding those gangsters and hurting them myself."

Ezra withheld the nervous chuckle in his throat. Disregarding Aria's statement wouldn't help him at the moment. "Okay."

* * *

Aria settled at one of the island tables at the front of The Apple Wood Grill as she settled her bag on the top of the table. The sun was just starting to set, and with its descent, the air was slowly growing cooler. She couldn't help but think of Ezra's body being out there somewhere, left open to the dirt and environment, and god only knew what else.

"Try not to look so scared," Ezra commented from beside her. He was sitting in the stool next to her silently praying that no one would walk up and try to sit on him.

"I cant help it," she said softly, putting on the charade for the sake of making herself look normal.

"Well if your father walks in here and sees you terrified, he's going to know that something more is going on, and that's not going to do anything to help you." Ezra replied.

Aria groaned, resting her elbow on the table as she looked down at it. "I knew this was a bad idea."

"What's a bad idea?"

Aria's head whipped up at the sound of her father's voice. He walked over to the other side of the table and sat down across from her, settling his things on the seat next to the one he sat down on.

Aria quickly shook her head, forcing a smile onto her face. "Nothing." She pulled her phone away from her ear and stared at the screen for a few moments, pretending to hang up before she returned it to her bag.

"How was the rest of the day?" Aria asked as she glanced back up at her father.

Byron shrugged. "Alright. There were cops in and out all day asking questions. They wanted to talk with everyone who saw Ezra last night, so you should probably stop in at the police department before you go home."

Aria nodded, glancing down at the table again. "I kind-of feel bad for yelling at him last night now. If I'd known-"

"Aria, there was no way you could have," Byron told her. He reached over and placed his hand on top of hers and squeezed it lightly. Whatever happened to Ezra...I hate to say it, but he probably had it coming."

Aria's head whipped up once more, and there was a clear glare in her eyes as she stared at her father. Just as she was about to tug her hand away though, a cold chill ran over her wrist. Ezra's way of telling her to stay calm.

Aria inhaled a deep breath and then exhaled before speaking. "Ezra wouldn't put himself in unnecessary danger. His brother, Wes, though..." Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head. She knew Ezra didn't like her talking bad about Wes.

"I won't pretend to know anything, because I don't." Byron said. "But if you're in danger by being affiliated with Ezra or his brother-"

"**Wes** is danger, dad," Aria said sternly. "Ezra is not bad by association."

"Maybe not," Byron said a bit softer. "But that doesn't mean that being near him won't get you hurt. Especially if being near his brother is what has caused whatever has happened now to take place."

Aria opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, Ezra cut her off.

"Alright, that's enough! Let it go. It's a stupid thing to argue over and it's not why you came to dinner in the first place."

Aria closed her mouth and exhaled a long breath. A moment after, a waitress walked up with glasses of water and handed them each a menu.

"Order me a chicken cordon bleu," Ezra commented. "I'm famished."

Aria's eyes grew wide as she stared at the menu, grateful for the fact that it shielded her face from everyone else.

Ezra chuckled after a few seconds. "I was just joking."

Aria returned her attention to the menu, and soon afterwards, Ezra quickly began to grow bored. As he stared at her menu, he couldn't help but grow frustrated. He wasn't hungry, and he wasn't in any pain, but he also wasn't actually a part of anything. And for the first time since he'd woken up that morning, he had nothing to do.

For her own part, Aria quickly became distracted by the meal with her father, and though she tried not to let it happen, Ezra's presence fell into the back of her mind. It wasn't because of anything specific; the problem came from the fact that she couldn't see him. She could only hear him, and any sound of movement only mixed in with the rest of the background noise around her.

Sometime late into the meal, when Ezra had exhausted every apparent form of entertainment-including reading peoples text messages over their shoulder and muttering obnoxious responses-he returned to his spot next to Aria and sat down, catching the tail-end of something Byron was saying.

"So did they treat the infection?" Aria said, rubbing her hands up and down her right arm at the sudden feeling of a cool presence beside her.

"I'd say so. There are so many drugs in our medicine cabinet that it looks like a pharmacy," Byron told her.

Suddenly, Ezra's world seemed to shift. Before he knew what was happening, he was no longer seated next to Aria, but instead lying down in the dark against something hard. The movement around him was enough to tell him that wherever he was, it wasn't stationary.

After several long moments of seemingly fighting with his body, his eyes slowly drifted open, and in that moment he felt a whole world of pain from his head all the way down to his toes. In the darkness, he could see three guys. They registered in his mind as the same guys who had beaten him up in the parking lot Hollis.

After looking around a bit more, he realized that they were in a van. It was one of those large fifteen-seaters, except all of the back seats were missing, and he had simply been tossed in the back.

Logic told him to move-to do everything humanly possible to get away from these guys. But as he tried to move, he quickly realized all the aches and pains he hadn't yet noticed from lack of movement. The few inches he'd managed to push his torso up from the floor were gone as his hand right hand gave out from under him, and he dropped back onto the floor of the van.

One of the guys turned around and looked at him from his place in the passenger seat at the front of the van. He looked over at the guy in the seat behind them.

"Take care of him."

Ezra gaze drifted to the the guy the one in the passenger seat was talking to. He was tall, but no more than Ezra himself was, he remembered. And though it was dark, the guy's hair was light; probably some shade of blonde. He was muscular, but not by any spectacular means.

The guy ambled over to him, hunched down in the small space. When he reached Ezra, he dropped to a knee and smirked at him. He flipped him onto his back and then grabbed Ezra by the collar and lifted him a few inches before punching him hard enough to cause Ezra's head to whip around in the opposite direction. He then grabbed a fistful of Ezra's dark curls and pounded his head against against the floor of the van. It was only a few times, but just once was enough to make the world spin around Ezra. The last thing he remembered before everything went dark was the a bright light shining on the man's face as he stood back up to return to his seat, and the look of total disregard in his muddy brown eyes.

* * *

It was well after dark when Aria exited the grill with a sense of panic set in. She had felt the sudden sense of warmth wrap around her almost an hour earlier while still eating-a feeling that she could only assume from Ezra no longer being in her presence. She had waited for him to return throughout the entirety of her visit with her father, only to continue to be filled with fear with each passing minute.

When she reached her car, she got into it and leaned over to set her things on the passenger seat, only to be growled at.

"Hey! Sitting here!"

Aria exhaled a heavy sigh of relief. "Where the hell did you go?" She said, keeping her voice low as she leaned into the back seat. She'd made it through dinner. Now she just needed to get home.

"I remembered something," Ezra responded. "When I came out of it, I was standing outside of the grill, and I was so bored that I decided to just stay in here. I read the whole owner's manual for your car."

Aria couldn't help but laugh at his admission. It was so trivial, and yet understandable. Still, her attention quickly shifted to his confession of a memory, and she glanced up at him. "Wait, what did you remember?"

"It wasn't much," Ezra admitted. "I just remembered being in the back of a van and driving somewhere. I think they were talking about pressuring Wes to pay up. I remembered trying to get up and not being able to, and that's when they realized I was awake. So one of the guys came back and hit me in the head a few times to knock me out. After that...I remember him getting up and light shining on his face. He had light hair and brown eyes."

Aria couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed as she tugged her seatbelt across her body . She knew that he was only telling her the truth, but she couldn't help wishing that his story would've had more detail to it. She would've been satisfied with anything that would've told them where he was. She was terrified that they wouldn't find his body in time.

Ezra exhaled a long breath as he watched her while she started the car. It was clear that she wasn't happy with his revelation. "I'm sorry there wasn't more. But at least it's something."

Aria nodded, biting her bottom lip for a few moments in a strong attempt to keep from crying. "I know. I'm just scared."

"I am too," Ezra admitted. "But maybe since I remembered this, I can remember other stuff too."

"Yeah. Maybe." Aria muttered.

* * *

A quiet fell over the car as she drove back to her and Spencer's apartment. Both she and Ezra were too caught up in their own thought processes to say anything to the other. The most painful part of it all was that they both knew they were caught up in the same thoughts, but didn't have the slightest clue how to approach discussing them. Neither of them had a clue as to how to figure out how to find him.

When they arrived back at the flat sometime later, nothing was said. They both simply got out of the car and walked up to the building. Ezra followed Aria slowly up the steps to the second floor and down two hallways, into the apartment.

When they stepped inside, all the lights were off and the TV was the only thing that lit the livingroom. Aria settled her bag on the kitchen counter and glanced into the livingroom as she pulled her phone out of her bag. She looked down at her phone and then glanced back into the livingroom once more as she realized Hardy was sitting on the couch.

"Where's Spencer?" She asked.

Hardy looked up at her. He settled the TV remote on the table and stood, grabbing an empty glass sitting on the coffee table. He walked into the kitchen and placed it in the sink. "Sleeping. I got a call about an hour ago and couldn't get back down."

"Did you guys eat?" Aria asked as she checked her messages. She sent a quick text to her mother, simply checking in.

Hardy nodded, leaning back against the sink. "Yeah." He scratched the side of his head and then crossed his arms, glancing up at her. "I, ah-...I got a call from Ezra's mom today."

Aria looked up at him and gulped.

"Oh fuck," Ezra muttered.

"Okay?" Aria asked in her best attempt at playing dumb.

"You lied to me this afternoon," Hardy told her. "Didn't you?"

"Aria, don't lie to him. You're better off just telling him the truth. He's a lawyer." Ezra insisted.

Aria exhaled a deep breath. "Yeah."

Hardy nodded, biting down on the inside of his bottom lip as he stared down at the floor for a few moments. When he looked back up at her, Aria could see the mixture of sadness and fear in his eyes.

"Do you know where he is?" Hardy asked.

Aria shook her head, inhaling a shaky deep breath. "I wish I did."

"Aria, do you know anything?" Hardy continued. "At all?"

Aria looked down at her hands grasped around her phone. It lit up with a new message from her mother. She unlocked it and then tapped on her note app before opening a new one and typing into the top of the screen.

_I don't know what to tell him._

"Tell him the truth," Ezra responded as he stood beside her.

_What if he thinks I'm nuts?_

"Then he thinks you're nuts," Ezra replied. "But to be fair, I don't think he's that ignorant to ghosts and the afterlife and all of that stuff."

Aria couldn't help the slight chuckle that escaped her. When Hardy gave her an odd expression, she shook her head. "Sorry, I wasn't laughing at you."

Aria inhaled a deep breath as she turned her phone off and placed it back in her purse. "I, um...I saw him last night. When I was leaving Hollis, he was outside the teachers lounge. He said he'd been on the phone, but I yelled at him and then I left."

Aria couldn't help the tears filling her eyes as she thought back to the evening before. If she had only given Ezra a moment of her time and not jumped down his throat...

"Is that all?" Hardy asked, interrupting her thought process.

Aria looked back up at him. She whipped a hand up and brushed the tears from her eyes, shaking her head. She chewed on her lip for a moment, trying to desperately to imagine how she could possibly even approach the subject in the right way. She shook her head at herself and exhaled heavily.

"You're probably going to think I'm nuts for even asking about this, but do you..." Aria's voice trailed off and she gulped, curling her hands into fists and bringing them up to her mouth, chewing on her knuckles.

Hardy stared at her skeptically, entirely confused at what had her so scared. After a long moment, he hopped up onto the counter and reached into the sink, grabbing his glass. He reached over with his other hand and bumped up the faucet, filling the glass. Once it was full enough, he removed the glass and then turned the faucet off and took a large sip of it before placing the glass back on the counter.

"I can see that something is obviously going on here, so I'm gonna offer you this: as long as you haven't done anything illegal and you aren't directly involved with whatever happened to my best friend, I'm not going to judge the next words that come out of your mouth."

Aria couldn't help chuckling. The comment seemed so easily to offer up, but she wasn't sure he'd actually feel the same way once she told him the truth. She inhaled another long breath and then exhaled before speaking.

"Do you have any belief in ghosts or...I don't, spirits?" Aria asked.

Hardy was quiet for a long pause, and with each passing second, the panic building in Aria grew. It was barely thirty seconds before he finally spoke, but the silence felt like hours for her.

"Sure, I guess," he said. "I mean I haven't personally ever been in the position of having any kind of presence-that I know of-but I'm not against the possibility of it. Why?"

Aria's chest caved as all her air escaped her. She wasn't sure what made the question so easy for him to answer. She still wasn't entirely sure that the last twelve hours weren't all just in her head.

"What if...what if I told you I knew Ezra was still alive, but I didn't know where he was or how long he had left to live," Aria asked.

Hardy inhaled a deep breath. "Well, I'd be inclined to ask how you came across that information. And considering the question you asked me before that, how are you so sure he's still alive?"

"I can't explain it," Aria replied honestly. "I just...hear him. As clearly as I'd hear you if you were standing behind me."

Hardy nodded scrupulously. "And how do I know this is real?"

"Repeat everything I'm about to tell you," Ezra said. Aria jumped slightly, having momentarily forgotten his presence.

"Um, he says that the night you and Spencer went out on your first date you called him," Aria began. "You were panicked and speaking really fast, and he didn't understand half of what you said, and you were pretty sure she was gonna bail on the date before it even started. You tried to talk him into meeting you at Snooker's and just blow it all off, but he told you that you had to go because..." Aria paused, smiling and chuckling. "Sometimes you only get one shot in life at something, and there's no way Spencer Hastings was ever going to give you a second chance if you blew the first."

Hardy stared at Aria for several long moments, appalled at her. He knew that Aria hadn't known about his relationship with Spencer before that afternoon, and she definitely hadn't been in contact with Ezra. And as much as his psyche was sure that this couldn't actually be possible, it seemed to be staring him right in the face.

"Okay, can you just ask one thing for me," he said with a shaky voice.

Aria nodded.

"Who is Jen?"

Aria heard a sharp intake of breath, and couldn't help the involuntary reaction of glancing behind her to see if anyone was standing there. Still, she saw nothing.

"His mother," Ezra told. "She threw him down a flight of stairs when he was four. His dad got full custody after that, and he hasn't seen her since."

Aria gasped as she stared at Hardy. It was hard to equate the guy she'd known years ago with the story Ezra was telling her. Tears filled her eyes as she pointed towards him.

"There's a scar on the back of your neck..." Aria murmured. "She-"

"Oh my god," Hardy muttered quietly, shaking his head, but never taking his eyes off of Aria. "Oh...my god."

Aria and Ezra were both quiet, letting Hardy process the information for several long minutes. When he finally broke the silence he was direct.

"Tell me what I've gotta do to help find him."


	4. Lovesick Fool

_Chapter 4_

_"I'm not the same, no something went missing  
__There's a cage, it feels like a prison  
__Here, I'll stay, until you come back home..."  
__-Lovesick Fool, __**The Cab**_

* * *

Aria sighed as she sunk into her bed. Her head ached from the stress of the day, and she felt both exhausted and wide awake. There were too many thoughts swirling in her head from the conversation she'd been trying to understand going on between herself, Hardy, and Ezra. Every time she seemed to catch up to whatever they were on a tangent about, she just became more lost. It certainly didn't help that she was doing all the communicating for Ezra, either.

"I'm sorry about all of that," Ezra said. Aria jumped slightly at the closeness of his voice.

She opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. "It's fine. At least he doesn't think I'm nuts."

In his invisibility, Ezra nodded. There was a comfort in knowing that Hardy believed Aria. If nothing else, it was one less argument he would have to have when-or rather if-he regained consciousness. The thought that he might not ever be again was shudder-inducing.

"Can I ask you something?" Aria asked after a few moments.

"Sure," Ezra replied.

"The night of my eighteenth birthday," Aria commented. "I saw you outside the grill."

"Mmm." Silence fell in the air between them. Even if Aria couldn't see Ezra, he was right beside her. It was all he could do to reach out and try to touch her, because he knew she wouldn't really feel it. Sure, she'd feel a chill, but she wouldn't actually feel his hand on her wrist.

"Did I bring up a sore subject?" She asked after a long moment.

Ezra exhaled heavily. "No. It took me a moment to recall the events of that night is all."

"And?" Aria asked nervously.

"I knew you were going to be there that night," Ezra told her. "I think I'd overheard your father on the phone or something like that. I remember thinking about going to you and trying to talk to you, but I was nervous because I didn't want to upset you. It had been so hard ever since I'd heard about you seriously dating that Holden guy just to even see you out in public. Part of me wanted you to stay hung up on me, and the other half of me wanted you to be happy, even though I hated that it wasn't because of me."

"So what happened?" Aria asked.

"Spencer called me," Ezra admitted. He chuckled. "She told me that if I was any kind of man, I'd come see you, even if just to say happy birthday. She told me about your birthday party, and so I made plans to drop in on my way to Philadelphia. Hardy and I were supposed to go out and get trashed so I'd be distracted, and he was supposed to keep me from drunk dialing you."

Aria giggled. She had a hard time imagining Ezra drunk dialing anyone.

"Anyway, I left Hollis sometime after the party had started because when I got to the grill, it was packed. There were all these people walking in and out, and I remember I'd seen you blowing out the candles on your cake. You looked so happy, and everyone with you seemed so **proud **of you. I knew if I went in and saw you, I'd be more likely to hurt you than make your day any better. So when your dad looked up and saw me, I walked back to my car and left."

"I saw you leaving," Aria told him after a few seconds of silence. "I thought about going out after you, but my dad was really obvious about saying we should cut the cake, and I figured he was probably right to focus my attention elsewhere. It'd been so long as it was..."

Ezra couldn't help a slight chuckle. "The funny thing is, it really wasn't. One year, compared to the past six...It really doesn't match up in the slightest."

Aria nodded, but the room quickly fell silent again. Just as she was starting to doze off, Ezra's voice interrupted her weary thoughts.

"I'm sorry, Aria. I'm sorry for not fighting your father to be with you, for not fighting for you..."

Aria opened her eyes once more. She lifted her hand up off the bed, palm up. Ezra reached out and grabbed her hand, and she closed her eyes once more. Aria felt a jolt of electricity shoot through her, but a moment later, it she could see him just as clearly as if he were actually right next to her in bed. She smiled at him. Ezra smiled back at her.

"Don't be sorry," she told him, looking him clear in the eyes. "It wouldn't be right to wish things had happened differently after all this time has passed. What we have now might not be perfect, but we both have adult lives, and they might not be perfect...but I like mine. I would hope that you like yours too."

Ezra considered her comment for a moment, and furrowed his brow slightly at her. "I suppose when you take out the whole drug-addict brother with gangster friends issue, things aren't all bad."

Aria chuckled. "See? I'm sure there's something you wouldn't have if things had gone differently back then."

Ezra nodded. "A career in teaching. Pretty sure a prison sentence would have come with my teaching license being revoked."

"See?" Aria said. "You **do **have something good in your life. And if it's the last thing I do, I'm going to make sure that you see the sun rise again."

Ezra inhaled a deep breath. "I've been meaning to bring up tomorrow-"

"I figured we could go at sunrise and talk to Wes," Aria cut him off. "He's gotta know _something_."

"**Aria**," Ezra exclaimed. "You have to go to work. You can't let people think me missing is getting to you. As far as anyone knows, I was your teacher for a semester a _long_ time ago. We've seen each other exactly **one **time in public since your return. Taking your first day off to look for me is going to look mighty suspicious to everyone."

"You've already been missing for twenty-four hours," Aria argued.

"Maybe so, but the cops are already going to be out looking. If you still want to go searching, we can after you've gone to work and done your job for the day," Ezra told her.

"If that's how you feel, then we should just go now." Aria said, moving to sit up on her bed.

Ezra shook his head, pushing her back down. In their joint connection, she could physically feel him pushing her back down. "No. You're exhausted. You need to sleep."

Aria huffed, glaring at him. A moment later, she felt a jolt, and then all she nothing but darkness behind her eyelids. Part of her desperately wanted to fight Ezra and get out of bed, but he was right. She was exhausted, and all her body wanted to do was sleep. Try as she might to stay conscious, she quickly drifted from consciousness off to sleep.

* * *

Aria slammed her fists down on her desk, exhaling a frustrated breath as she stared at the floor. The past twelve hours had dragged on like a chain wrapped around her ankle. The fastest point of her day had been the run she went for at 7 AM, but it did nothing to clear her head or bring back any memories for Ezra. Even with the sun high in the sky, they were still very much in the dark.

She had called Wes after her last class of the day, hoping he would have spoken to the cops, or at least tried to find out where his brother was. That endeavor was only serving to give her a migraine.

"You really must not give a flying **fuck **about your brother in the slightest," Aria growled as she began shoving things into her bag.

"I tried talking to them!" Wes argued. "They're not just going to tell me where he is when they still don't have money!"

"You're useless to me," Aria told him. "You don't serve any purpose other than to piss me off. Just leave."

Wes seemed to stare as though he expected her to apologize for what she said, but Aria ignored him. When she had all of her things packed up, she slung her bag over her shoulder and walked over to the door. When Wes still hadn't moved by the time she was opening the door, she waved him towards the hall. He huffed at her and then stomped out of the room and down the hall.

"You know he's never going to stop whining about this now." Ezra commented making his presence known.

"I don't care," Aria muttered as she pulled the door shut behind herself. "Let him be mad. This is his fault."

Ezra chuckled, shaking his head. There was simply no arguing with Aria when she was pissed.

Aria pulled her phone from her pocket and checked her messages before returning her phone to her pocket. She headed down the hall towards the exit, only to be stopped when someone called out her name. Aria turned and exhaled a sigh as she spotted Byron walking towards her.

"Leaving already?" Byron asked.

Aria nodded. She brushed a hand through her hair, pushing it back off her face. "There's a search party going out to look for Ezra, and I told Spencer and Hardy I'd go with them."

Byron's brow furrowed. "Who is Hardy, and why would Spencer want to look for Ezra?"

"Hardy is Ezra's best friend," Aria explained. "**And** Spencer's boyfriend. Look, I know you're really not into me doing anything that has to do with Ezra, bu-"

Byron shook his head, waving a hand dismissively at her. "I get it. I'm going to be here for a while longer though, so if you're going to be out past sundown, let me know and maybe I'll join you."

Aria nodded, forcing a small smile. She hugged Byron quickly and then said goodbye before turning and walking down the hall to the exit. She walked out into the parking lot and headed over to her car, only to stop several feet from her car door when she saw Wes standing in front of it.

"Wes-"

"Look, I could get murdered for telling you this, but the other night when I came back without money, they put a gun to my head and made me tell them where Ezra was. When they got back, all they did was threaten me. But when I left, I smelled dirt. Like they'd been rolling in it."

"Is that not normal?" Aria asked.

Wes shook his head. "No, those guys are always put-together and cleaned up. But the other night...I knew they'd done something."

Aria sighed. "Alright. Thanks."

Wes nodded. He moved away from her car a few moments later, and Aria tossed her things into the back seat before getting into the the drivers seat. She pulled on her seat belt and then started the car, checking her mirrors to make sure she was clear to back out before she pulled out of her parking stall.

The first few minutes were quiet-she had the sense that Ezra was lethargic, and thus too tired to say much. Even so, he eventually spoke up when they'd passed by a search party near Wright's Park.

"Where are we going?" Ezra asked.

"The apartment. I'm gonna change and then we're gonna take Hardy's car. Spencer isn't actually coming, I just had to make my dad believe that I had a logical reason for going."

"Our previous relationship isn't enough of one?" Ezra commented.

Aria couldn't help the skeptical glance to her side, even though all she saw was the cars she was passing by.

"Alright, alright," Ezra said. "I get it."

Aria smiled and punched the radio dial, turning the volume up. The CD player kicked in and Aria began singing along.

_"Young teacher, the subject of school girl fantasy_

_She wants him so badly, knows what she wants to be..." _

"Oh good god, you had to play this?" Ezra commented. In all his invisibleness, he desperately tried to turn the radio down, but it was useless.

Aria giggled, shaking her head at him. "Do you remember the night we snuck into that pub in Philadelphia and I sang this?"

Ezra was quiet for a few seconds. Eventually, he softly muttered, "no."

Aria gulped, reminding herself that she was determined to find him tonight and not lose him forever.

"That's alright," she told him. "It was just after Christmas, and we were meeting up for the night. You were driving back from New York, and we had agreed that I'd take the train up and we'd have dinner before driving back. Anyway, you met me at the train station, and you were all frustrated because a bunch of roads were closed coming into the state because of a snow storm, and you'd wanted to get back earlier. So I suggested we go to a bar and blow off some steam as a joke, but you took me seriously. I remember being really surprised, but you had made the comment that we met at a bar."

Aria pulled into her parking spot a few seconds later and turned the car off. "So we get to the pub and order food, and there's this guy on stage trying to get people to come up and sing because it's karaoke night. You kept telling me to get up and sing and I kept refusing. So when the guy asked like a tenth time, you just stood up and told them I would do it. I picked that song."

"Sounds like you were just trying to cause trouble," Ezra said in a teasing voice.

"No, that was you," Aria responded. She pushed her door open a moment later and got out of the car, grabbing her things from the back seat before closing both doors and heading up to the apartment building. She walked inside and headed up to the second floor. Aria walked into the flat and glanced around before spotting Hardy on the couch. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a dark blue button-down, apparently waiting for her.

"I honestly thought I'd beat you home," she commented.

Hardy shrugged, turning the TV off. "I left when Dianne called me. Told them it was a family emergency. Spencer knows now, but she couldn't leave."

"Alright. I'm just going to change then, and then we can go." Aria replied.

Hardy nodded, heading over to the fridge as Aria walked down the hallway. When she reached her door, he spoke up.

"Is...is he still around?"

Hardy popped his head around the corner and Aria nodded when she saw him. "He's got this bright idea that he's following me into my bedroom and watching me change. But he knows if he does, I'll make sure he's dead as soon as he's found."

"Oh come on!" Ezra whined. Aria giggled. She walked into her bedroom and closed the door.

Aria dropped her bag next to the bed and then quickly began unbuttoning her blouse while she slipped out of her heels, settling them next to the bed. Once it was open, she walked over to her dresser and pulled out a long-sleeved yellow thermal shirt and pulled it out before closing the drawer and opening another one. She pulled out a pair of jeans and tossed them up onto the bed along with the shirt. She quickly pulled her shirt off and then pulled the thermal on before taking off her dress pants and tossing them on her bed. She grabbed her jeans and then pulled them on before buttoning and zipping them. She walked over to one of the boxes stacked in the corner of her room and pulled it down. She opened the flaps and dug into the box, moving several pairs of boots around until she found a pair of runners. She pulled them out and then headed over to the door and walked out of her room.

Upon reentering the main room of the apartment, Aria walked over to to the counter and leaned against it so she could pull her shoes on.

"There's a check-in across the street from The Brew, and then they've been sending people all over."

Aria nodded, pulling tightly on the laces of her left shoe as she finished tying it. "I"m thinking we should check parks and the woods. Wes mentioned something about dirt."

"How is that going to be useful to us?" Hardy asked. He opened the fridge and retrieved a water bottle before turning and handing it to Aria.

She shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. All I know is that he said he smelled dirt. Like overwhelmingly. And I know I shouldn't buy into it, but if I believe anything about Wes, it's that he loves his brother, regardless of what state of sobriety he's in."

Hardy sighed, but nodded after a moment. "Agreed. Let's go."

* * *

Aria tugged her hair into a high ponytail as she stood next to Hardy at the check-in. He was currently talking to a police officer about his last meeting with Ezra-lunch two days earlier.

Once she had her hair properly tied up, she grabbed her water bottle from where she'd pinned it between her knees and twisted off the cap, taking a long sip from it. A moment later, she spotted Detective Wilden heading towards them. He nodded at her as he approached the table.

"Ms. Montgomery, I understand you work with Ezra Fitz?"

Aria nodded. "I do."

"Did you see him two nights ago?" Wilden asked.

Aria nodded again. "I left shortly after he did from the faculty party, but he was on his phone outside the room. We spoke for a few moments, and then I left."

"Did you see him leave the building?" Wilden asked.

Aria shook her head. "I left right after our conversation. There were a lot of people in the parking lot, and I don't really know anyone yet, so..."

Wilden nodded, and he was clearly frustrated from the expression on his face. "Alright. You both can go."

"There's groups scattered all over the city," the woman at the table in front of them said. "Right now, we're sending people to Wright's park."

"Okay thank you." Hardy replied. He and Aria walked back over to his car, but as soon as they were inside, she spoke up.

"We're not going to Wrights," Aria told him.

Hardy's brow furrowed. "Why?"

"Wright's park is filled with kids every day, and they're always in the woods. We need somewhere with dirt, and my best guess is somewhere next to the woods. Wright's park is just the edge of the woods."

"So then where do **you** suggest we go look?" Hardy questioned.

Aria chewed her lip for a moment.

"Alexander's playground is next to the woods," Ezra commented.

Aria nodded. "Yeah, but Beckett's has more space for hiking and there's enough room to get a car through there."

Hardy raised an eyebrow at her. "Do I want to know why you know that?"

Aria rolled her eyes. "Nevermind. Let's just go."

Hardy stared at her for a few seconds with skepticism before finally starting the car and pulling away from the curb.

They drove in silence for several minutes until they reached the park. Hardy pulled up against the curb and then the two of them got out of the car. He retrieved flashlights from the back seat, and then they headed across the grass towards the park.

"Does he have any clue where we're going yet?" Hardy asked.

Aria shook her head. "Let's just start looking. There's bound to be tire tracks somewhere."

They crossed through the park into the woods, wandering somewhat aimlessly as they searched. The sun was quickly falling under the horizon, and as the sky faded from shades of pink and orange to a deep blue, Aria and Hardy turned on their flashlights, bouncing the light from one side of the tiny trails they passed over to the other.

"Do you remember **anything**?" Aria said aloud. Hardy glanced back at her, shrivering slightly as the wind blew. It was getting colder fast.

Ezra glanced around him, concentrating with all he had in him. After a long minute, he shook his head. "No, I'm sorry."

Aria sighed, waving her hand at Hardy. He turned forward once more and they continued wandering through the woods.

Some time later, when Aria could feel exhaustion setting in, and she knew they weren't likely to find Ezra, she dropped down onto the ground, leaning back against a tree. She twisted off the cap of her water and took a long sip.

"Are we just hopeless? Are we wasting our time?" Hardy asked. Aria glanced up at him and could see the pain in his eyes. She exhaled heavily and recapped her water before grabbing her flashlight. She panned it around low against the ground, scattering the light. She stopped suddenly when Ezra spoke.

"Stop. I see shoe prints in the dirt."

Aria moved the flashlight slower before she spotted the trail he was referring to. She shook her head.

"Those are our footsteps."

"No," Ezra disagreed. "I've got a feeling."

"Is it a strong one?" Aria questioned. Ezra was silent, but she pushed up anyway and began walking in the direction of the shoe prints. Hardy followed behind her, pointing his flashlight in the same direction.

They followed the footprints through the woods, once again seemingly wandering aimlessly. It continued to get darker, and after another twenty minutes had passed, Aria once again stopped, though this time it felt more final.

"Ezra, we're wasting our time," she said in a shaky voice. "We've been out here for almost two hours."

"She's right, man," Hardy commented. "We're walking in circles."

In that moment, Aria wished she could see Ezra, because she knew he wouldn't respond. In the same instance though, she was grateful that she couldn't, because she didn't have to see the disappointment in his eyes. They were giving up on him.

She took another drink of her water and then panned her flashlight around one last time before exhaling a heartbroken sigh. Suddenly though, Hardy whipped his flashlight up next to hers, and then began to dart forward.

"What is it?" Aria asked. "What do you see?"

"Me," Ezra stated simply in a strangled voice.

Aria darted forward in the dark, following after Hardy as he charged a hundred yards in front of them. He dropped to his knees when he reached Ezra's lifeless body, brushing away fallen leaves and other debris to place a hand against his neck.

"He's ice cold," Hardy commented. "But there's a heartbeat. Call 911."

Aria pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed in 911. She was quickly connected to a dispatcher.

_"Please state your emergency,"_ the woman spoke softly from the other end of the phone.

"We found Ezra Fitz," Aria said in a rushed manner. "He's unconscious, but he has a heartbeat."

_"Alright, can you tell me where you are?" _The woman asked.

Aria looked around her. She didn't have the slightest fucking clue.

"I have no idea. Somewhere in the woods behind Beckett's park."

_"Alright. Just a moment." _ There was silence, and then the woman came back through the line and spoke. _"We're tracking the GPS in your phone. An ambulance is on its way." _

The next few minutes passed quickly, and shortly thereafter, Aria could hear sirens nearing them. Not long after that, they heard voices, and then the EMTs were coming through a clearing some five hundred feet away, quickly followed by police officers. Aria stood from where she had knelt next to Ezra and returned her phone to her pocket. As she did, one of the cops walked up to her.

"Aria Montgomery, you're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you-"

"What?!" Aria cried as the officer behind her cuffed her. The man next to him continued reading her the Miranda rites while another cuffed Hardy. The two of them exchanged worried and confused glances in the dark. It didn't make sense.

* * *

Aria stared out at the two-way mirror as she picked at her fingernails. There was dirt underneath them from when they'd been out in the woods.

The ride over from the park had been quiet. Only once was anything said, and she was the only one to hear it. Hardy had silently questioned if Ezra was still with them, to which Ezra had stated that he was. After that, they had fallen into a determined silence. Hardy was speaking for the both of them, and in the process, they weren't speaking at all.

"How long do you think it'll take them to realize this isn't our fault?" Aria asked.

Hardy shrugged, shaking his head. "God only knows."

They sat in silence once more for a time, and Aria dropped her hands against the table. Dropping one hand in front of the other, she drew on the table with her finger.

_What's going on out there? Can you find out?_

"I can try," Ezra replied. He wondered out of the room into the bullpen, looking around for several seconds before he spotted Detective Wilden at the front desk talking to someone. He wanted to wander over, but he could feel something pulling him. He was feeling better than he had over the past twelve hours-more awake and energetic-and he had a feeling that this was going to be the end of all his ghostly wandering-but he had to get back to Aria first. He had to do something.

Wilden turned and walked back across the room, walking straight past him and heading back into the interrogation room. Ezra followed after him, seeing a clear frustration about him. He walked over to Aria and Hardy and uncuffed them.

"You're being released," he told them.

Aria and Hardy shared a look before looking back at Wilden.

"We haven't even seen a lawyer," Aria said.

"There were other searchers in the park," Wilden told them. "And someone else came forward with credible information. You're free to go."

"That's enough for me," Hardy commented. "I'm out of here. Let's go, Aria."

Aria followed behind Hardy to the door, only for him to stop just as he crossed the threshold.

"And you should be so lucky if I don't sue you for all of this."

With that, the two of them headed out through the building. Since they were never booked, they were allowed to go freely. They headed out of the building and began walking in the direction of Beckett park, five blocks away.

When they reached Hardy's car, he glanced over at Aria. "Is he still with us?"

Aria shook her head. "He's gone."


End file.
